


The Professor and the Prophecy

by isquinnabel



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Hogwarts, Prophecy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-23 07:31:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17679110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isquinnabel/pseuds/isquinnabel
Summary: A new prophecy has come to light and Harry, to his frustration, is expected to do something about it.





	The Professor and the Prophecy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [liesmyth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/liesmyth/gifts).



To be perfectly frank, Harry Potter had heard more than enough talk of prophecies to last a lifetime.

Unfortunately, the head of the Auror Office didn’t feel the same way. He’d acknowledged the limits of prophecy and, of course, the office focused on more reliable methods of catching dark wizards. They didn’t even have access to prophecy records — this was strictly the domain of the Unspeakables. But the Keeper of the Hall of Prophecy alerted the Auror Office if a prophecy was… worrying.

This had happened once before. It came to nothing; now, the prophecy in question was just a dull grey orb on a dusty shelf. This newer prophecy, however, was still under scrutiny.

The prophecy didn’t seem particularly obscure in its meaning. Two muggleborn cousins, whose fathers were brothers, born in summertime. Harry sometimes wondered why whatever mysterious power it was that overtook legitimate Seers didn’t just talk normally: “Alright everybody, some cousins are coming. One could be the next Voldemort, the other could be the next Chosen One. Might be worth keeping an eye on it.”

At any rate, there was only one pair that fit the prophecy’s description, and they were headed for Hogwarts this year. The prophecy stated that “ _light calls to light, while darkness beckons itself home_ ”, and that was how Harry wound up with this particular long-term assignment: Professor Potter, the new Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor. Anybody could have been assigned to the _darkness beckons itself home_ bit. This was, after all, precisely what Aurors spent years training for. But Harry’s boss insisted that only he was capable of the other half of the equation; that only Harry could guide and enlighten this new Chosen One, and mould her into his image.

Today was the first of September. Marlie and Olivia had arrived at Hogwarts, and were presumably sound asleep: Marlie in the Hufflepuff dormitories, Olivia in Gryffindor tower. And Harry had no intention of moulding anybody. He would, of course, keep any and all dark forces at bay. But he had no interest in creating a protégée. At this stage, the prophecy was hardly written in stone. As far as he was concerned, his job was to give those girls the space to make their own choices without adult wizards meddling in their destinies and forcing them to live out a prophecy.

Harry gazed wearily out of his bedroom window. Stars were scattered across the sky, high above the gently swaying silhouette of the Forbidden Forest.

_Mars is bright tonight._

*

Harry was the only Defence professor, so he taught both Marlie and Olivia. Both girls were bright and hard-working, and quickly made friends in their own houses. Olivia was bold, in both personality and spellcasting, and she cottoned on to new ideas and skills very quickly. Marlie was quiet, cautious, and rather easily embarrassed. But, although it took her longer to get there, her eventual standard was often superior to that of her cousin. Harry worked hard, and watched over the girls carefully, but he maintained a respectful distance. It wasn’t until their second year that he spoke with them one-on-one.

Harry was having trouble falling asleep. This was partly due to the chilly night, but mostly because of a loud thumping noise coming from the ceiling. Harry strongly suspected that Peeves was the culprit but, to be sure, he got out the Marauder’s Map.

Harry used the map quite sparingly. As far as he was concerned, the students were welcome to the occasional bit of silly mischief; he wasn’t about to sacrifice any sleep to crack down on kids nicking cake from the kitchens. He was quite happy to use it as part of his Auror duties, but he had no reason to suspect any dangerous goings-on at the school, so he hadn’t used it much. Only on odd one-off occasions, like this one.

Harry activated the map, and his suspicions were immediately confirmed – Peeves was bouncing around the fourth floor and, from the sound of things, knocking over some statues. But before he had time to get annoyed, something else caught his eye. A little dot was in the Restricted Section of the library. It wasn’t moving – it seemed to have settled in amongst the rows and rows of shelves.

It was Olivia.

Quick as a flash, Harry put on his dressing gown and slippers. He didn’t bother muffling the creak of his bedroom door in the still night air, as the sound was nothing compared to Peeves’ mad cackling. As he slipped down the corridor, his pace slowed to a standstill. Was this necessary? After all, Harry himself had gained illicit access to the Restricted Section as a second year. If some other student had shown up on the Map tonight, one who didn’t have some ominous prophecy over their head, would he still be charging down to the library right now?

Harry, with a quick glance at the Map, kept moving. He’d needed the Restricted Section for a very specific reason: that was the year Riddle opened the Chamber of Secrets. Olivia’s reasons might be perfectly innocent. But, as much as Harry wanted to keep the prophecy at arm’s length, he had a job to do.

Harry soon arrived at the library. He was highly trained in stealth, and didn’t exactly need his Invisibility Cloak to catch a twelve-year-old unawares.  
“Hello.”  
Olivia yelped, and the open book in her lap began loudly wailing in response. Before it could get too worked up, Harry silenced it with a quick jab of his wand. He leaned casually against the tall shelf, which was a little awkward in a dressing gown, and calmly asked, “Is it a good read?”  
Olivia looked rather nervous, but she still met his gaze.  
“Not really. It’s a bit gruesome.”  
“May I see?”  
Without hesitation, Olivia handed over the book. It was crumbling at the edges, and smelled like a mixture of regular mustiness and something a little more sinister – golphebilin blood, perhaps. The faded ink on the cover read “BARWICK’S COMPENDIUM: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO ANIMATE POTIONS.”  
“This is more than a bit gruesome, Olivia.” Harry hadn’t encountered Barwick’s Compendium until his first year of Auror training. No animate potions were taught in the Hogwarts curriculum; these potions were, in some sense of the word, alive. Reading about them was rather stomach churning. “Why are you reading this?”  
“Professor McNulty said something about animate potions last week, but he wouldn’t answer my questions.” Her face darkened. “He said I was too young.”

Harry wasn’t planning to write her off as a future Voldemort anytime soon. He had a good gut sense for people’s motivations, and his instinct told him that this was innocent (if unusually dogged) curiosity, thwarted by the words “you’re too young”: the gravest of childhood offenses. Harry liked to think that, in McNulty’s place, he would have given some sort of answer to her questions. But the Compendium itself wasn’t something he’d ever hand over to a child.

“You have a very curious mind, Olivia, I’ll give you that.”  
Olivia raised her head proudly. “The hat nearly put me in Ravenclaw! Marlie, too. We were nearly sorted together!”  
Harry raised an eyebrow. “Don’t think you can distract me that easily. I agree with Professor McNulty. This book is in the Restricted Section for a reason, there’s some nasty stuff in here.”  
“I’m not afraid!”  
“That’s not the point. Besides, fear isn’t inherently bad. Fear always tells us something, and sometimes that thing is worth listening to.”  
“You’ve said that before.”  
“Yes, I probably have.”  
Olivia paused. “I’m not sure it’s true.”  
“Oh?”  
“Fear doesn’t tell you much of anything. It just gets in the way.”  
“Of what?”  
“Of everything.” Olivia shrugged. “Stuff you want to know. Stuff you want to do.”  
Harry gave a rueful smile. “I understand, but sometimes you need that pause before you act on something.”  
“Why?”  
Harry still felt a guilty pang whenever he thought of Sirius. It wasn’t as sharp as it once was, but it had never fully gone away. “Sometimes that thing you’re so certain about is actually the wrong decision. Or, in this case…” he nodded towards the book, “that thing you want to learn is something you’re not yet ready for. Some mistakes can’t be undone.”  
Olivia glanced warily at the book, but she didn’t answer. Harry decided that that was enough lecturing for one night, and said, “I’ll take care of the book. Go back to bed. And I’m taking twenty points from Gryffindor.”  
Olivia gave a heavy sigh, but she didn’t argue. As soon as her footsteps faded, Harry reshelved the book with a quick wave of his wand and pulled the Map out of his dressing gown pocket – partly to check that she really was returning to Gryffindor Tower, but mostly to see if Peeves had finally got bored of the fourth floor corridor. To Harry’s great relief, Peeves was now bouncing around the kitchens.

With one last glance at the long rows of the Restricted Section, Harry turned around and headed to bed.

*

The next morning, Harry was rather annoyed with himself. He’d returned to bed so proud of the wisdom he’d imparted. ‘Think before you act’ was something he’d love to go back and tell his younger self and, upon reflection, he realised that he’d lectured Olivia as though she was exactly that: a young version of Harry himself. She wasn’t really. Harry, for example, would never have prowled around at night to learn something for its own sake – only ever as a part of some larger plan. Olivia’s behaviour last night wasn’t exactly usual.

As he leafed through a pile of fourth years’ homework, he had the uneasy realisation that he had perhaps got that one line of the prophecy backwards: “ _light calls to light, while darkness beckons itself home_ ”. He’d been assuming that Marlie and Olivia were the passive ones here, either called by light or beckoned by darkness. He’d taken it for granted that his job was simply to avoid designating roles to either of them, keep dark forces in check, and allow them to live their lives as normal children. Harry’s own prophecy would never have unfolded the way it did if Voldemort hadn’t chosen to pursue it; Harry himself had had no control over his role, and he’d refused to dump the girls in that same position. But we all make our own choices, Marlie and Olivia included. Perhaps the prophecy didn’t mean that they were to be called – perhaps it meant that they were the ones who would do the calling.

This thought made his stomach churn. Had his boss at the Auror Office been right?

A soft knock at the door interrupted his train of thought.  
“Come in!”  
Harry sighed inwardly when Marlie slipped into his office - so much for keeping his distance - but he gave her a friendly smile.  
“Good morning, Marlie.”  
“Hello, Professor.”  
This was followed by an uncomfortable silence. At least, Marlie appeared to be uncomfortable. Harry wasn’t bothered; he opened his desk drawer and began rummaging for a quill.  
“Something on your mind?”  
Marlie hesitated. “It’s just… I’d like you to take twenty house points off me, too.”  
Harry stopped rummaging, and stared. “This is a first. I’ve never had a student ask me to take house points off them before.”  
As he said them, Harry’s words felt flimsy. This was only his second year on the Hogwarts staff, and here he was implying some enormous vault of teaching experience. They clearly didn’t ring hollow to Marlie, however, because she immediately went red.  
“It wasn’t Olivia’s fault,” she said. “Reading about animate potions was my idea.”  
“Whose idea was it to ask about losing house points?”  
“Mine. It’s not fair otherwise.”  
Harry leaned back in his chair.  
“Why in the world did you want to read about animate potions?”  
Marlie had been staring at her shoes, but at this point she looked up in surprise. “Because of what you said, Professor.”  
“What I said?”  
“Yes. You said that we can’t defend ourselves against something if we don’t know all about it, and Professor McNulty wouldn’t say anything else about animate potions, so…” she shrugged. “It was the only thing to do.”

Harry supposed he should be proud that his words were being taken so seriously, and perhaps he sort of was. But, honestly, he also found it rather alarming. 

“What stopped you from going along?”  
Marlie mumbled something that Harry didn’t quite catch, so he asked her to repeat it.  
“I was afraid.”  
“Of animate potions?”  
She shook her head. “Of being caught out of bed.”  
This was so absurdly far from Harry’s own experience as a Hogwarts student that he wanted to laugh, but instead he replied, “Well, let’s say you had gone with Olivia to the library. What would have happened?”  
“I’d have been caught.”  
“Then what?”  
“I’d have lost twenty house points.”  
“And here you are, asking to lose house points anyway. What’s the difference?”  
“It’s not the same.” Marlie cast her eyes downward. “I’m not in Gryffindor with Olivia for a reason, Professor. I’m not brave.”  
“Of course you’re brave, you wouldn’t have come here this morning if you weren’t. You’re not in Hufflepuff because you aren’t brave enough for Gryffindor, you’re in Hufflepuff because you can’t bear the thought of your cousin being punished for something when you feel responsible. You’re loyal. You’re fair.”  
Marlie looked rather taken aback at this, but before she could say anything in response, Harry continued, “You’re also wrong, though. I docked house points from Olivia for because she was out of bed at night. You weren’t. Some situations are complicated, but I don’t think this one is. Keep your house points.”  
Marlie was quiet for a moment, and then nodded. “Alright.” She turned to leave and, when she was halfway through the door, she gave Harry a small smile. “Bye, Professor.”  
Harry grinned back. “See you later.”

Marlie closed the door softly behind her. Harry stared at the closed door, letting the minutes pass.

The prophecy suddenly seemed a lot more complicated than he had given it credit for.


End file.
